Keywords

Body Mass IndexObese PatientMetabolic RateObese SubjectLean Mass

Background

Weight gain may be associated with an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. The resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the main component of total energy expenditure, and is related mainly to lean mass (LM), as well as to other factors such as fat mass (FM), age, sex and genetic factors. A RMR lower than expected may be a risk factor for weight gain. RMR is estimated by equations that use patient's weight, sex, age and height to calculate energy needs. Several studies have shown that these equations have a poor agreement with RMR measured by indirect calorimetry (IC) in obese patients once their excess fat-free mass (FFM) is usually not taken into account.

Objective

To evaluate the accuracy of five equations in predicting RMR in obese subjects. Results were compared with measured RMR (mRMR) determined by IC.

Authors’ Affiliations

Copyright

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.